The city is going to drastically overhaul how cyclists travel to-and-from the Macdonald Bridge. Regional council voted Tuesday to approve the Macdonald Bridge Bikeway Connectors project—rebuilding access and exit ramps for cyclists in Halifax and Dartmouth. At $7.3 million, the new project isn’t cheap. But it is vital, said councillor Sam Austin, as the bridge […]
City Council
Posted inNews + Opinion
City council gives province 120 days to figure out a future for Bloomfield
Halifax is giving the provincial government one more shot to get it right at Bloomfield. On Tuesday HRM council voted to sell the former north end school to the province, with the implicit hope of using the site for a new Francophone school. Although councillor Lindell Smith’s motion doesn’t specifically name any organizations, the Conseil […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Transit getting $14 million worth of “gee-whizzes and neatos”
The municipality is spending a lot of money bringing Halifax Transit’s technology up to speed. Council voted on Tuesday to pay Trapeze Software nearly $14 million to overhaul Halifax Transit’s tech by creating new back-end scheduling software and installing some fare boxes. It’s more exciting than it sounds. “This sounds like the least exciting part […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Someone stole Lindell Smith’s bike
He might be getting interviewed by Peter Mansbridge on a national stage these days, but city councillor Lindell Smith is still a man of the people. Case in point: he just had his bike stolen. “Yeah, no one’s immune,” says Smith about the Halifax rite-of-passage. The councillor’s grey Halfway folding bike was stolen from his garage […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Watch this: Cornwallis protester disrupts council, records video
Instead of a press conference and symbolic tarp, members of the public who repeatedly disrupted Tuesday’s meeting of Regional Council were escorted out of council chambers by security. Trish MacIntyre, a Métis activist with Halifax Anonymous and one of the organizers of last weekend’s protest at Cornwallis Park, was at City Hall to watch mayor […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cornwallis tarp already removed
Only a few hours after being covered up, the statue of Edward Cornwallis has already been unveiled. Municipal workers, under orders from mayor Mike Savage, draped the controversial monument with a black tarp during a protest early Saturday afternoon. It was a compromise from municipal officials hoping to keep the peace as nearly 300 people […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council’s summer vacation power handoff
Restricting how much the CAO can spend when council’s not around is really harshing Steve Craig’s summer vibes. The deputy mayor wants to give unlimited spending authority back to HRM’s chief administrative officer, five months after those powers were taken away because of the potential for misuse. Craig is putting forward a motion at the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council promises new home for Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre
Plans for a brand new Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre are one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to a surprise motion from Halifax Regional Council. After an in-camera discussion that began Tuesday evening and spilled into Wednesday afternoon, council voted to once again look at selling the former Red Cross building in the north […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax doesn’t know what its contractors are paying workers
It’s impossible to gauge the financial impact of HRM adopting a living wage policy, in part because right now the municipality doesn’t know what its contracted employees are being paid. On Tuesday, Halifax Regional Council voted on a verbose staff recommendation to explore including employee compensation, environmental impacts and social economic benefits when approving external […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tall Ships gets funding boost
Tall Ships will raise its sales with over half a million dollars in municipal funding. Regional council voted Tuesday to increase Halifax’s contribution to the nautical festival—to a total of $540,000—at the request of mayor Mike Savage. “It’s going to be spectacular for the city,” Savage told council. “This is one of the most significant […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bloomfield withering on the vine
Halifax is still trying to figure out what to do with Bloomfield, more than a year after the province walked away from redeveloping the former north-end school. A staff report before Regional Council on Tuesday recommended once again selling off the Agricola Street property as surplus. Instead, council voted to defer that discussion until mid-August […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Shawn Cleary continues push for changes to HRM’s snow plans
The snow may be gone from Halifax—knock on wood—but Shawn Cleary still has winter on his mind. The councillor for Halifax West Armdale will be asking for two new staff reports at the next meeting of Regional Council that would allow residents to opt out of sidewalk snow clearing, and bring all of HRM’s sidewalk snow […]
